Thursday, June 25, 2015

On the day that Bruce Johnston, Rock
musician, singer (The Beach Boys), turns 72 and The Beach Boys takes the stage
at Cliff Castle Casino Hotel’s Stargazer Pavilion in Camp Verde, Arizona, we
have a Beach Boys Party.

Bruce Arthur Johnston(born Benjamin Baldwin on June
27, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as
a member of the Beach Boys. He joined the band for live performances in 1965,
but then became a contributing member on subsequent albums. Johnston is also
known for his early 1960s collaborations with Terry Melcher as Bruce & Terry and with the surf band the Rip Chords, as well as composing the 1975
Barry Manilow song "I Write the Songs".

On April 9, 1965, Johnston joined the Beach Boys,
replacing Glen Campbell, who was playing bass on the road and singing Brian
Wilson's vocal parts. Johnston did not start playing bass until his first
tenure with the Beach Boys, and the very first vocal recording Johnston made as
one of the Beach Boys was "California Girls" (although for contractual
reasons he would not be credited or photographed on a Beach Boys album until
1967 on the Wild Honey album).

Johnston is frequently credited, by some, as one of
the original greatest supporters of the Beach Boys' 1966 signature album Pet
Sounds. He flew to London in May 1966 and played the album for John Lennon and
Paul McCartney. He wrote several Beach Boys songs, notably 1971's "Disney
Girls (1957)", which was covered by Cass Elliot, Captain & Tennille,
Art Garfunkel, Jack Jones, and Doris Day. Johnston also sang lead on three
songs from the 1970 Beach Boys album Sunflower: "Tears In The
Morning", "Deirdre", and "At My Window". During live
concerts Johnston sang lead vocals on "God Only Knows", "Please
Let Me Wonder", "Wendy", "Do You Wanna Dance", and
"Disney Girls (1957)".

Johnston returned to the fold in 1978 at Brian
Wilson's request to appear on (and co-produce) the album L.A. (Light Album).
The following year he was credited as sole producer on the follow-up LP,
Keepin' the Summer Alive. Johnston has remained with the Beach Boys ever since
and was the only member to continue touring with Mike Love as The Beach Boys
after the death of Carl Wilson. In June 2012, Johnston, Brian Wilson, Mike
Love, Al Jardine, and David Marks reunited for a new album and 50th anniversary
tour. Despite his long involvement with the band, he no longer has a full
membership in Brother Records, having traded his shares (but not his artist
royalties) in 1972. Johnston still retains his equal ownership of the band's
ASCAP publishing company, Wilojarston, and is the only member of the band to
have earned a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

The Beach Boysremained active through many trials and
tribulations, such as the original main creative force, Brian Wilson’s
estrangement from the group due to creative differences and mental issues, the
deaths of Dennis in 1983 and Carl in 1998, and the addition of newer members
over the years. The current group consists of founding Beach Boy Mike Love
(lead vocals) and Beach Boy-vet Bruce Johnston (vocals/keyboards), along with
Jeffery Foskett (guitar/vocals), Randell Kirsch (bass/vocals), Tim Bonhomme
(keyboards/vocals), John Cowsill of The Cowsills (percussion /vocals) and Scott
Totten (guitar/vocals).

A sock hop
or sox hop, often also called a record hop or just a hop, was an informal
sponsored dance event for teenagers in mid-20th-century North America,
featuring popular music. It was commonly held at high schools and other
educational institutions, often in the school gym or cafeteria. The term came
about because dancers were required to remove their hard-soled shoes to protect
the varnished floor of the gymnasium. The music at a sock hop was usually
played from vinyl records, sometimes presented by a disc jockey. Occasionally
there were also live bands.

Sock hops
were held as early as 1944 by the American Junior Red Cross to raise funds
during World War II. They then became a fad among American teenagers in 1948.
In later years, "hops" became strongly associated with the 1950s and
early rock and roll. Danny and the Juniors sang "At the Hop" in 1957,
which named many popular dances and otherwise documented what happened at a
hop.

In
subsequent decades, with the widespread popularity of sneakers and other types
of indoors-only shoes, the practice of removing shoes was dropped. The term
then came to be applied more generally to any informal dance for teenagers.

The term
caught on in England in the late 1980s during a British rockabilly revival, led
by groups like The Stray Cats. "Life Begins at the Hop", a song celebrating sock
hops, became the first charting single for XTC.

Gymnasium

A gym,
short for gymnasium, is an open air or covered location for gymnastics and
athletics and gymnastic services such as in schools and colleges, from the
ancient Greek gymnasium.

Gymnasia
apparatus such as bar-bells, parallel bars, jumping board, running path,
tennis-balls, cricket field, fencing gallery, and so forth are used as
exercises. In safe weather, outdoor locations are the most conductive to
health. Gyms were popular in ancient Greece. Their curricula included
Gymnastica militraria or self-defense, gymnastica medica, or physical therapy
to help the sick and injured, and gymnastica athletica for physical fitness and
sports, from boxing to dance.

The Greek
term gymnasion (γυμνάσιον) was used in Ancient Greece to describe a locality
for both physical and intellectual education of young men. The latter meaning
of intellectual education persisted in Greek, German and other languages to
denote a certain type of school providing secondary education, the gymnasium,
whereas in English the meaning of physical education was pertained in the word
'gym'.

The Greek
word gymnasium means "school for naked exercise" and was used to
designate a locality for the education of young men, including physical
education (gymnastics, i.e. exercise) which was customarily performed naked, as
well as bathing, and studies. For the Greeks, physical education was considered
as important as cognitive learning. Most Greek gymnasia had libraries that
could be utilized after relaxing in the baths.

The gyms
had halls and colonnades with statues and pictures. These gymnasia also had
teachers of wisdom and philosophy. Community gymnastic events were done as part
of the celebrations during various village festivals. In ancient Greece there
was a phrase of contempt, "He can neither swim nor write." After a
while, however, Olympic athletes began training in buildings just for them.
Community sports never became as popular among ancient Romans as it had among
the ancient Greeks. Gyms were used more as a preparation for military service
or spectator sports. During the Roman Empire, the gymnastic art was forgotten.
In the Dark Ages there were sword fighting tournaments and of chivalry; and
after gunpowder was invented sword fighting began to be replaced by the sport
of fencing. There were schools of dagger fighting and wrestling and boxing.